Finally after about 4 years, Katana World got a new pre-constructed deck release. Each deck is solid with great reprints within all three decks.
Within the Katana World deck, though, three cards were reprinted:
Gargantua Dragon and
Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind and Deity Gargantua Punisher as an SP rarity. Gargantua Dragon and Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind were needed because of the prices of these cards going higher and higher.
Gargantua Dragon was printed a lot in the Gargantua Awakened set which helped support both the Dragon World and Katana World releases but once Magic World Gargantua Dragon was announced, people were trying to pick up copies of him left and right which increased prices and at this point, he was decently hard to pick up.
Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind was only a box topper from the Driven to Disorder set. They were already highly valuable in the Tsukikage/Byakuya ninja decks. Deity Dragon Tribes coming to Katana World made them shoot up even more and it was just going to get even worse without a reprint.
Fuuton's reprint was great for two reasons. First, it came in a trial deck at a guaranteed two copies so people would only need to get two to have a play set. Second, the reprint has art more associated with Deity Dragon Tribes instead of the art with
Electron Ninja, Shiden on it. I personally am a stickler for having appropriate art for the appropriate deck so I was ecstatic.
The cards in the deck help solidify Deity Dragon Tribe/Ninja support. The Dimension Destroyer support was a good start but it felt like some cards were missing to complete it and this pre-constructed deck will help.
Now before I get going, I want to mention something. Both
Gargantua Dragon and his new variant
Daybreak Roar, Gargantua Dragon are solid cards and they should be the main ones used in any variant of Deity Dragon Tribes. I'm mentioning this now because I'm not going real in depth below on them but wanted to assert that they are going to be the go-to variants and people don't have to search high and low for the other variants of Garga at this time for their decks to function.
Without further ado, let's analyse the (Katana World) cards!
Size 0:
First off the list is the two "maru" brothers. Karakazemaru is a size 0. His stats are 2000/1/1000. He's also free to call.
His first ability is if he is dropped (discarded) from hand, the play can gain a life and gauge. His second ability is just like
boomerang dragon. After he attacks, the player returns Karakazemaru back to hand.
Karakazemaru will obviously work well in Garninjas because that's what he was designed for. However, he does help Japanese Blade/Blade Beasts as well. The deck can have a field of potentially size 1/2 or size 3/0 monsters on the field with one or multiple weapon(s) equipped and in either case, Karakazemaru can be played to the center and bounced back to hand without ruining the formation.
Within the game right now though, 2000 power and 1 critical aren't going to make any revolutionary changes. Sure it'll help the above mentioned decks a "little" bit but it won't pull up Blade Beasts from the tier 2/3 spot it's been in for the past several years.
The second brother, Kogarashimaru, doesn't do nearly as much as Karakazemaru. Kogarashimaru has very similar stats which are 2000/1/2000 and he's free to call as well.
Kogarashimaru's on-enter skill allows the player to choose one Dragod monster in the drop zone and discard a hand card. If the player does discard a card, the player puts the Dragod to their hand.
This overall is suppose to be a wash (one card discarded to put a card in hand). However, at this point, it should be well known that certain cards in ninja decks let the player draw a card if they're discarded. I'll get to them soon but just take note that these cards allow players to occasionally plus from discarding by card effects.
Even though Kogarashimaru has the potential to be a plus 1, in nearly all situations, he won't be. This extends to further beyond than just his effect. The problem with Kogarashimaru is he's a size 0. Gargantua Dragon usually wants to start the attack phase with a size 1/2 field and spam the size 0 Dragod tokens mid-battle. That being said, Kogarashimaru will have to be called over to make the initial size 1/2 board state.
If a card like
Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind is dropped for Kogarashimaru's effect and the player gains a plus one in card advantage, they're going to lose the Kogarashimaru by calling over him and sending him to drop.
This means in a less ideal situation without
Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind, the player will be still minusing one. Since Kogarashimaru doesn't have the bounce effect like his brother, it's not like he can be called to the center and bounced back to hand.
The above problem is why he'll ultimately not be used in competitive Garninja decks. There's other more powerful options that don't minus the player.
Size 1:
Musashi is an example of what I like to see in cards as far as the relationship between stats and abilities on the card. He has below average size 1 stats (3000/1/1000) but if you have a Dragod on the field, he gains two critical. This means he becomes above average for size 1 monsters. He also has the static "Shadow Dive" ability that allows him to attack the opponent directly even if there's a monster in the center.
Basically, well designed cards should have this dichotomy of sacrificing stats/resources to possibly gain advantage over the opponent. This isn't to say that this doesn't happen to a lot of Buddyfight cards because it absolutely does. He's just a more cut and dry example.
Regardless of this, he won't be used in decks. Sure, 3 critical is usually nothing to scoff at but when players can transform into cards that have well over 3000 defense, it struggles to actually hit the opponent. This kind of advantage (critical advantage in this case) isn't normally sought after by competitive players because it's easy to work around and doesn't have any lasting effect on the board state after the battle phase ends.
My man Nindog is back with a new form. Nindog's stats are 3000/2/1000. He's only down 1000 base stats from a vanilla size 1 Katana World monster which is good. His one ability is when he enters the field, put the top card of the player's deck into their gauge for each Deity Dragon Tribe monster on the field.
Keep in mind this includes himself so the player will always get at least one gauge. With the size 0 monsters in the set, the player could get up to 3 gauge when he enters the field.
Unfortunately, there are better size 1 options and I still prefer the original
Nindog more to just add more copies of itself to the hand. Sure, the cards added to the hand don't do anything but
Nincat and other cards are there to freely discard the copies to get "real" cards. Plus, Nindog helps thin the deck for consistency.
Onto the Nincat in the deck! Flash of Momiji, Nincat is free to call as well. His stats are 3000/2/1000. His ability is when it attacks, the player chooses up to two Ninja from the drop zone with different card names and drop a hand card. If a hand card is dropped, add the two cards back to the player's hand.
One of the purposes of this card is to grab a Katana World Gargantua Dragon form to G-EVO into during the battle phase and, just like with other discard effects possibly plus one more with
Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind. Otherwise, the effect is a plus one (discard one card to gain two cards).
The problem with this card is it's slow. It would be a more preferred ability if it could be activated during the main phase, like an on enter ability, to help the player properly set up their board but this card won't help to that end... unless you want to wait until the player's next turn.
Well, here we are. Reviewing another Bird form. Contrary to his other Dragon World and Katana World forms though, this one is actually solid. Knives Ninja Technique, Ninbird has 4000/1/1000 stats and he's free to play. However, only one can be played once per turn.
His ability is when a Dragod enters the field, the player may drop a hand card and if they do, the player gains 2 life, check the top three cards of the deck and put one from among them into your hand. The rest go to the bottom of the deck. This ability is a soft once per turn.
Bushiroad must've noticed people running
Guardian Electrobeast, Goryou and wanted to curb the need for the card in Garninjas.
Since Ninbird is during the main phase, this card helps get the field set up. The player can possibly get their item or get
Art of Truancy and make their board safer. The card states that any card can be grabbed with the effect so the player doesn't have to reveal the card to their opponent.
Size 2:
Onto the proverbial "meat and potatoes" of the deck. The Gargantua Dragon forms! First up is Gargantua Kirigakure Dragon. He has the standard 6000/2/6000 stats of other Katana World Gargantua Dragon forms.
His call cost is pay 2 gauge and put the top card of the player's deck into his soul. This is an odd call cost compared to his earlier forms. His earlier forms costed 1 gauge and put a card from the drop into his soul. This helped Gargantua Dragon get the G-EVO card in his soul to help get his form's full ability going.
Kirigakure Dragon has move and soulguard. When he enters the field, put up to one Ninja Arts from the player's deck into their hand and shuffle the deck. Then, if it entered by G-EVO, the player gains 2 life and deals 2 damage to the opponent.
The effect is quite flexible since G-EVO activates at the end of a battle with a base Gargantua Dragon. The newer form of Gargantua Dragon has move and soulguard so the player could G-EVO into Kirigakure dragon during the opponent's battle phase and search for a Ninja Arts that could help with defend during the battle phase.
Or it could go the traditional route and grab a Ninja Arts card that will help push for game such as
Hades Flame Style, Art of Fire Manipulation or
Deity Dragon Ninja Arts, Cy-clones Sword Dance.
The second Gargantua Dragon form in the trial deck is... okay I suppose. Jiraiya Dragon has the standard 6000/2/6000 stats. His call cost is put a card from the drop zone into his soul and pay 2 gauge. This is going back to the original, better call cost but unlike Garga's Dimension Destroyer variants, it's 2 gauge instead of 1.
Jiraiya Dragon has move and soulguard. When it enters the field, the player may pay 1 gauge. If they do, put up to two cards from the top of their deck face down on the field as "<<Dragod>>/size 0/6000 power/6000 defense/ 2 critical" monsters. Jiraiya also gives all monsters on the field +3000 power and +1 critical if he has a card with G-EVO in his soul.
The problem with Jiraiya is he's competing with
Gargantua Wind Demon Dragon which is objectively better. Sure, the extra power and critical to all the monsters is nice. I won't deny that but Wind Demon Dragon helps summon tokens during both players turn to help with both offense and defense.
Jiraiya is only upon entering the field and the player has to pay a gauge to call the clones. Meaning he costs more and is limited in the situations where he excels. Sure the gauge costs is probably justified because of the bonus stats the tokens can receive but good players can usually work around generic aggressive cards.
On top of that, the on-enter token creation can cause the player to waste or lose attacks with the initial size 1 that would already be on the field and the weapon. Wind Demon Dragon is a Counter/Act ability so the play can choose when the appropriate time is to summon the tokens.
The player could probably hit with the size 1 and item if Gargantua Dragon and his Wind Demon form could destroy enough cards in the center of the field. Then, the size 1/item could attack the player. Once the size 1/item have attacked, the player could call the tokens to the field. The way Jiraiya is, the player would lose the size 1/item if they needed the extra attacks from Jiraiya to break through the center.
I know this sounds like a nit-picky situation but this can occur pretty frequently. Especially if the opponent is aware of this crux.
Spells:
So this isn't the first time Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind has been printed but it is a staple card for the ninja decks and it needed a reprint. The first time it was printed, it was out of Driven to Disorder as a box topper. I didn't review it during that post because we weren't 100% sure if it was coming out until the English version of the set came into consumer's hands and at that point, I already released the set review.
I wanted to touch upon this card because it touches upon a core concept of card games that all players should be aware of if they want to have any chance have being good at any card game. That concept is called Card Advantage.
Card advantage is a game action that either generates more quantifiable benefits or resources to you than it costs. Card advantage is a good indicator of the status of the players within the game and could indicate who is going to win said game. The logic being if someone has more cards than their opponent, then they possibly have more ways to either not lose the game or push hard enough to win the game.
Card advantage is applied to both the cards on each player's field and in each player's hand and is usually referred to as "plusing", "minusing" or "going even". For example, when someone plays a card on the field from their hand, it's considered minus one from the hand but a plus one to the field which means the player is going even.
The power of Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind is the case that the player can virtually never minus with the card when it's played in a ninja deck. Let's look at Fuuton's abilities and see what I mean.
Fuuton's first skill allows the player to put a Ninja from their drop into their hand. The player is minusing one for casting the spell but gains a plus one for adding a Ninja back to their hand. This is considered going even where no net gain of cards was achieved.
Fuuton's second skill allows the player to gain a gauge and draw a card if Fuuton gets discarded from hand by a card effect. Ninja cards are full of effects that include discarding in order to either draw cards from deck or gain back cards from the drop zone. This discarding is meant to curb the hand advantage that could get out of control.
Fuuton helps bypass this loss of hand cards by not only allowing the player to draw a card but gain a gauge that could help them call/cast/equip cards that are in their hand that they drew into.
To clarify this, let's look at only
Art of Getting Fish's second effect which states the following:
Put up to a total of two Deity Dragon Tribe monsters or items with different names from your drop zone into your hand. If you put two cards, drop a hand card.
Let's go through the process one step at a time:
- The player casts Art of Getting Fish (-1 card. -1 overall advantage)
- The player grabs two cards from the drop and adds them to hand (+2 cards. +1 overall advantage)
- Since the player grabbed two cards, they must drop a card from hand (-1 card. 0 overall advantage)
Art of Getting Fish is balanced in the sense that there is no net gain of cards in hand or field for the player. Let's say the player discards Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind in step 3. Then, Fuuton will activate in a "step 4", if you will, and the player will gain a gauge and draw a card (+1 card. +1 overall advantage).
I know only gaining one overall card advantage doesn't sound crazy but when you apply this to other cards and combos decks can do, it can accumulate a lot of cards and give you, the player, an edge over the opponent. There is more to card advantage but I wanted to talk about the aspect of it in relation to Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind.
In Buddyfight, there is also life and gauge as a resource but I won't get into those right now. The core concept to understand is card advantage at the moment and make sure you understand it well.
This next card can help with card advantage as well. Ninja Arts, Hiding in Fallen Leaves has two abilities. At counter speed, the player can gain 3 life.
This is nice for when the opponent is trying to close out the game with an impact. The 3 life gained can help keep the player from losing. Many impacts state that the impact can't be nullified, the damage can't be reduced or the player can't be revived. Hiding in Fallen Leaves gets around all of this because the player is just gaining life points. However, going with the card advantage from above, this is a minus one since you're discarding a card and gaining no cards in return. Normally this could be seen as bad but if you need to lose a card to stay in the game, it is probably worth it.
Hiding in Fallen Leave's second ability is the better of the two effects. When it gets dropped from the hand by card effects, the player gains 1 life and they draw a card. It's just like Fuuton's discard effect except you gain a life instead of a gauge. This makes it as a solid back up to Fuuton and I could see it being played probably around 2-3 since the first effect isn't as ideal to Fuuton's first effect.
Deity Dragon Fuuton, Gale Blade is also playing into the discarding effects of Garninjas and card advantage. Let's review each of it's effects one at a time and see how it is in relation to card advantage.
The first effect, at counter speed, allows the player to return a size 2 or less monster or spell on the opponent's field to hand. Players may initially think this is going even because the player is losing Fierce Wind Blade to have the opponent lose a card on the field but you must look one step further.
The card is returning to the opponent's hand. Sure, the card is minus 1 on the field but it's a plus 1 back to their hand. Mean while, the player loses Fierce Wind Blade for casting it; Making it a minus 1 for the player.
So you, the reader might wonder why you would use this card's first effect. The fact of the matter is that cards like this may make you minus 1 but it can give you what's called tempo against your opponent. Bouncing a monster or spell that would cause a lot of damage can give you the edge you need to survive this round and win next round.
The second effect only activates if the card is dropped from hand by a card effect. The player pays 1 life and can bounce any card back to hand. Again, there is no hand advantage to be made since it's being discarded and you're only shifting the card from field back to hand but there's a lot of cards that can't be destroyed by card effects. Returning cards to hand can give that edge you need against certain decks.
Gar Rice (as I'm going to call it) is a solid draw spell. It is a great, simple example of a plus one in card advantage. The player plays Gar Rice (-1) to draw two (+2. +1 overall advantage). I know I'm really beating this proverbial horse but I want to emphasize what main concept is taken the most into consideration when looking at cards and building Garninjas correctly.
It's also good to note that this card is at counter speed. If the player can't get a Dragod monster on the field with total power of cards on the field being 12,000 or more, they can probably get it when the tokens are called to the field. Sure it's slower than playing it during the main phase but it's better than nothing at all. This card is also why I still prefer the original
Nindog compared to the trial deck variant. Original Nindog has 6000 power.
Cliff-Splitting Wall is a new shield for Garninjas. It can only be casted if there is a Deity Dragon Tribe on the field during an attack on the opponent's turn. Nullify the attack, then the player may drop a hand card. If you do, gain 2 gauge and draw a card.
Like most shields, and regardless of it's secondary effect, it's a minus one to hand advantage but that's not a bad thing. Shields aren't really valued for their card advantage. They help the player stay in teh game. The secondary effect is naturally going even so if you have a duplicate item in hand or a second Art of Truancy in hand, by all means ditch it to gauge 2 and draw a card. At this point it should be obvious but the two best cards to discard are either Fuuton, Sweeping Whirlwind or Ninja Arts, Hiding in Falling Leaves.
Items:
Moving onto the items now, the first one is Gar-Claw. It has 6000/2 stats and costs a gauge and life to equip. The claw has double attack and if there is a Dragod on the field, all of the player's monsters can't be destroy by the opponent's card effects.
Between the two trial deck's items, I prefer this one over the next item card. The anti-destruction is always a welcome sight to see and it has 6000 power. Making it easier and require less cards to get Gar Rice off.
Gar-Tsubaki has 4000 power and 2 critical. It costs 1 gauge to equip it. It's similar in effect to
Deity Dragon Blade, Garkunai. Gartsubaki states if the player is being attacked, they may drop a hand card. If they do, for the turn, the next time the player would be dealt damage it is reduced by 3 and it's a soft once per turn.
Instead of nullifying the attack like Garkunai, it reduces damage received. I would rank Garkunai higher than Gartsubaki because Garkunai's ability isn't once per turn.
Impacts
I already reviewed this card in the Dimension Destroyer Katana World set review which you can read
here! Just scroll down a little ways.
Otherwise, it's cool to see another SP foiling of a card. I love the gold border SPs so I fully welcome this card into my collection but it probably won't be used...
As if one impact wasn't enough for the trial deck, Bushiroad had to add a second one. Whirlwind Blades requires the opponent to have 5 life or less and have a Dragod on the field. It costs 2 gauge to play. It deals 2 damage plus the number of monsters on the player's field with 6000 power or greater and the damage cannot be reduced.
I could see people trying to work it into their decks. I probably won't run this but, it objectively is better than Deity Gargantua Punisher for several reasons.
First, the casting requirement is less than Deity Gargantua Punisher. Whirlwind Blades only needs a Dragod on the field and the opponent at 5 or less life.
Second, given that the cast cost is less, the same amount of damage can be potentially done.
Third, but I believe is most important, it's a Ninja Arts attribute card. Meaning it can be tutored with Gargantua Dragon's
Kirikagure form,
Secret Scrolls or put underneath
Shinobi Scrolls and still be casted. It can also be grabbed by
Apex of Flashstep, Tsukikage from the drop if you so choose to do so.
Now people may say that it's possible for the opponent to destroy the tokens at counter speed to deal less damage to the opponent when the player casts this impact and you may be right. However, if the opponent did have such a card, they will probably use it during the battle phase to lessen the effectiveness of the attack phase instead of during the final phase.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that's that. I hope the card advantage part was informative to some people newer to card games. Normally I don't bring it up too much but with all the discarding done in the deck, I wanted to put it out there and have people be aware of if they're losing or gaining cards in hand.
Let me know if you have any questions. I feel deck building Garganinjas is a little more complicated than usual now and there's actually a couple different play styles you can play around with.
